Dog show helps Klein student purchase service dog

CRYSTAL SIMMONS

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Photo: Michael Minasi

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Klein ISD student Xander Smith, who suffers from a seizure disorder, returns to his seat during the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” fund, created to help Xander raise funds to acquire an assistance dog. less

Klein ISD student Xander Smith, who suffers from a seizure disorder, returns to his seat during the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the ... more

Photo: Michael Minasi

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Klein sophomore Matthew Cole plays with Bronx, an American bulldog, after competing in the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” fund, created to help Klein ISD student Xander Smith, who suffers from a seizure disorder, raise funds to acquire an assistance dog. less

Klein sophomore Matthew Cole plays with Bronx, an American bulldog, after competing in the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog ... more

Photo: Michael Minasi

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Ruby, an American bulldog, performs a rollover trick after competing in the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” fund, created to help Klein ISD student Xander Smith, who suffers from a seizure disorder, raise funds to acquire an assistance dog. less

Ruby, an American bulldog, performs a rollover trick after competing in the first PAWS Dog Show on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” ... more

Photo: Michael Minasi

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Klein junior Kylie Brown competes in the first PAWS Dog Show with Matrix, an Alaskan Klee Kai, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” fund, created to help Klein ISD student Xander Smith, who suffers from a seizure disorder, raise funds to acquire an assistance dog. less

Klein junior Kylie Brown competes in the first PAWS Dog Show with Matrix, an Alaskan Klee Kai, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at Klein High School. The show helped raise awareness for the “Dog for Xander” ... more

Photo: Michael Minasi

Dog show helps Klein student purchase service dog

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Three years ago, Erhardt elementary student Xander suffered a life-changing seizure at school.

That year, Xander had been taking an adaptive behavior class created by a new teacher, Lesley Zentz, to teach children social skills.

As part of the program, Zentz was allowed to keep specially trained dogs in her classroom, which she tied into her lesson plans.

“After the social skills component, we were able to use the dogs as a reinforcement, which really helped most of my students stay focused and on task,” she said. “All my students progressed that year. It was phenomenal.”

While Zentz had taught the dogs basic commands, nothing prepared her for what one of her dogs, Ivy, knew naturally.

“Xander had a seizure in class one day and Ivy detected it,” said Zentz. “She had followed him around all day and wouldn’t leave him alone. She knew something was going to happen.”

The event had far-reaching effects. Since then, Xander’s teacher has expanded her program, Partnering Animals With Success, to all grade levels, while Xander’s mom has made it her mission to find Xander a trained seizure dog.

“This dog wasn’t even trained to detect seizures. That’s when I said what if we had one bred for that purpose to help Xander,” said Xander’s mom, Leslea Crabill. “The thing is he doesn’t really have any triggers. We really have no indication when he’ll have them. He usually has them at night, which is really dangerous. That’s why the dog can really help us. We’d have something to alert us during the night.”

After doing some research, Crabill discovered the North Star Foundation, which places dogs with children with disabilities. Usually bred for autistic children, the dogs can be trained to detect seizures. However, to even get on a waiting list to receive a puppy, Xander’s family had to meet a $5,000 fundraising goal, which is only half the true cost of the dog and its intensive training.

“We get the dog as a puppy and go through the training with the dog, so he bonds with Xander at an early age,” she said.

Crabill didn’t have to look far for help though. When Zentz heard that Xander was raising money for a North Star dog, she knew it was the perfect project for her Klein High PAWS students.

For seven months, PAWS students and their general education student partners practiced lessons in teamwork, patience, respect, responsibility, self-awareness, communication and showmanship through dog training.

The lessons paid off on March 25, where students demonstrated their mastery of delivering obedience commands such as sit, stay and come and rally commands such as 90 degree turns and start/finish commands.

One Klein High student, Kylie Brown started PAWS after signing up for the STARS program, which pairs general education students with special education students.

Brown said the program helped change her perspective.

“[We] get to work with the special needs students and really understand what they have to go through and get to know them personally,” she said. “Once a week we got to go train with the dogs and students.”

Brown said she knew the program had been a success when she found herself being mentored by a PAWS student, who prepared her for the dog show last week.

In the end, Zentz said the program teaches skills difficult to learn in the classroom: leadership, showmanship and assertiveness, said Zentz.

“Most of my students who started the year with me ended up going into some general education classes with their peers,” she said.

To make a donation, mail checks or money orders to the “North Star Foundation” with Xander’s name in the memo line on the check.